boarding schools and fencing

[sac973]

Does anyone know any boarding schools that offer fencing or have a fencing club. I am aware of the Hun School in Princeton, Masters School in New York and Phillips Exeter in NH. Are there others out there? Would like to stay on the eastern seaboard. Thanks for the help.

[Anne]

Although you indicated that you would prefer to stay on the east coast, Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon has a boarding program and, in addition to high academic standards, offers fencing with instructors from Oregon Fencing Alliance. A student at OES can participate at a recreational level with the school's club, or take the sport to a higher level through OFA. Although a single weapon club, OFA specializes in sabre, a student can get any level of instruction and competition he or she desires. Good luck.

[beatrice]

Hi - All I can say is : Go to the Hun School of Princeton!!!!!!!! I went to Hun and graduated this year. Have you visited it? You should! The school is awesome...it's academically a very good school...great course offering,great teachers, great students. I was a resident student there and loved living on campus. The community is very diverse, with people coming from all over the United States and many from all over the world....
I loved this school! There is no question that the fencing program there is the greatest part of the school. They have a big varsity team (last year we had 42 fencers...) and two very good (extremely devoted and nice!!!) coaches. The team practices every day during fencing season...practice includes footwork, games, drills, one-on-one lessons, and bouting. Additionally (and that's really the greatest part of it) there are the so-called Fencing Nights every Tuesday and Thursday night...you can go take lessons (for free of course) , fence the coaches (fun!) or your teammates..or you can just go hang out and be with your fencing buddies (who you would all love...). That's not mandatory...but if you like fencing, you will find yourself addicted to it very soon. The team has about 9 meets on its schedule, they fence all major fencing-high-schools of New Jersey, there's Prep State Championships, Santelli Championship (which our foil squad won this year) ,Cetrullo....Coach always drives a van to all NJ-Divion Fencing Tournaments - so you don't have to worry about finding a ride...if you also happen to go to Junior Olympics, Coach will be there too...and he'll make sure that (1) you do really well (2) you don't get cheated out by stupid referees (3) you have fun (4) you have food...
What else could I say? They always have some really good fencers, nice captains. if you're a good fencer and have some brain, they will also get you into a GREAT college!!!!
The 2 years that I spent at Hun were the best years of my life, and I don't know who I would be today if I hadn't gone to the Hun School, or even worse, if I had not joined the fencing team. I lived for this team! It was all I cared about. And I became a good fencer!It was just soooooo much fun. Contact me at hotsnail2@hotmail.com if you want more information about Hun. I'll answer any question honestly and I can also give you the email addresses of the two coaches there.
Go to the Hun School, you won't regret it (nobody ever has...).
Sincerely, Franziska Albers
PS: I visited Philips Exeter...if you really want to learn to fence and go to tournaments, and have TIME to fence (after school...) don't go there. There is also Lawrenceville School near Prinveton...a good school with a terrible fencing team (they don't really have coaching there)...I don't think there are any other boarding schools with fencing in New Jersey and one more time : Go to Hun!!!

[ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: beatrice ]

[three_hundred_fifty_five]

Originally posted by sac973:
<STRONG>Does anyone know any boarding schools that offer fencing or have a fencing club. I am aware of the Hun School in Princeton, Masters School in New York and Phillips Exeter in NH. Are there others out there? Would like to stay on the eastern seaboard. Thanks for the help.</STRONG>

Most of the top fencers in the US did not graduate from or attend a prep school. The top fencers attend a fencing salle with a high caliber youth fencing program. It didn't matter whether they attended a private or public school.

[Peach]

Lawrenceville is a very good school that happens to have a fencing team. A young man who goes there often stops by our club when he's home for breaks, and the coach (like me, and like many coaches in private schools, he is a regular teacher who is also expected to coach) came and took lessons at our club last summer to improve his coaching. I wouldn't go to a school because it has a good team; the problem many kids have (two I've known of from our club) who go to boarding schools is if it doesn't have a team it's darn hard to get off campus to train. They mostly want you to be on campus.